Eavesdropping
by 2many2count447
Summary: What if Brennan had been standing behind Booth when he was talking badly about her in The Mastadon in the Room?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is probably a one-shot but I am willing to continue if you tell me to! Hope you enjoy this!**

"I'm pretty sure Bones is heading back the "Moppacachuey" Islands, or whatever they're called, to find her missing link to humanity."

"Well we'd all like for her to find that, eh?"

"Right? Me, too. No missing link there, hey?"

"There ain't nothin' missing over there."

"Right?"

My feet are shifting awkwardly on the carpet of the J. Edgar Hoover building. Everything around me becomes fuzzy except for the dark silhouette of Booth in is his black suit. He stands next to Caroline looking at a picture of Booth's new girlfriend, Hannah.

I sputter out, "um," without a thought, and Booth turns around with his mouth open slightly. Caroline looks up too, and has what I discern as a troubled look on her features. I cross my arms in a defensive manner and allow my eyes to stay where they want to, on the floor. "Did you get anything out of the parents in questioning, Booth?"

"Um, yeah I did. What are you doing here Bones?" he questions. My body shudders at the distinct sound of guilt in his deep voice as he turns of his phone and slips it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

"I was just coming to compare notes on the case so far then see what you got in questioning, like I just asked."

"Bones-" he starts.

"It is fine Booth. It is not like it's the first time I've been called a cold fish or uncaring," I try to plaster a fake smile across my face to comfort him, "Do you want to compare notes now, or later?" This is my small attempt to change the subject.

"Let's do it later. How's tonight?"

"Good. I will see you then." I turn away and walk in the elevator. He starts to follow me and I rush in through the open metal doors. Just as I turn around inside the empty elevator, the large doors close in front of us once again. As soon as they do my eyes water, but I refuse to cry. I believed that he was this altruistic man who didn't care that I got confused with stupid references. I came back for him only to be called cold by the him. I believed he understood me. How foolish of me.

**AN: I'm not really sure if this is a one-shot. Do you want me to continue? Tell me in the reviews please! I promise to update my other story ASAP. For those who haven't read it please do!**


	2. Chapter 2

My drive back to the lab was uneventful. One moment I am at the Hoover, then I am at the Lab. I have no recollection of the drive back. Only the memories of Booth's words replaying over and over in my head and the chuckle that escapes past his lips when he wishes I were more human. I'm a cold fish. Understood loud and clear. The jury is in, I am no longer needed here with Wendell at the lab, Booth doesn't need nor want me here, I seem to be on Cam's naughty list, and since Angela is starting off her life with Hodgins. Why shouldn't I go back to Maluku?

Having made my decision, I purposely walk through the lab to Cam's office. When I tell her my plan, my decision to go back to find my "missing link," she shakes her head in a disapproving manner. I didn't expect her to understand. Angela yelled when I told her. She started to cry.

For next few hours, I sit at my computer staring at a blank document. My writing muse is dead for now, I can tell. There is no hope for Kathy and Andy currently, as they are further apart as ever have been, because Kathy crossed the line. This day will never end, it seems.

When Angela came into my office later, she hugged me and cried. She ended up sitting on my couch, soon falling asleep from the pregnancy and her emotions. Not a long time later, Caroline reluctantly walked into my office with a guilty expression on her face.

"I just wanna apologize, Cher. I know you and Booth are close and I'm just sorry you had to hear all of that," she apologized.

"Logically speaking, Booth should feel spiteful of me. After nine months, I would expect him to be so. Despite that fact, I never expected him to believe that I am... Incapable of feeling emotions."

"I know that must have hard for you to hear, but trust me Cher, he was just venting. You don't really believe that he believes all that we said do you?"

"In fact, I do," I state. If one thing is true, Booth does not lie about anything, unless it is for their own good. From that I must conclude that what he said was true.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I should get going. Gotta get a warrant from a lazy as hell judge," she tells me. She lightly smiles, the kind of smile that says 'I pity you" and 'I really screwed this one up' and 'sorry' all at the same time. I used to get that same smile all of the time from Booth and Angela, subtract the 'I really screwed this one up.' As Caroline walks morosely out of the room, Angela gives me the smile. Then she stands and places her hands on her wide hips.

She orders, "What did he do, Bren? What did he say?"


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: So** I** got a ton of favorites and reviews and I really would like to thank all of you. I hope to be updating more quickly than my usual rate. Thank god it is summer. I tried to write this one quickly because of all the reviews, especially one particular guest who's review made me laugh out loud. I hope you will enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Think it'd be pretty weird if I was having an existential crisis over my own storyline. (You know what I'm talking about Danosaurs. And if you don't then... I DON'T OWN BONES)**

Angela and I had a conversation that was very long and heated. Once we had gotten the lab back, Angela told me of her plan to confront him. I could barely tell if the rage that was in every word she spat out was caused by her new pregnancy or just genuine overprotectiveness. Either way, There was no possible way I could of stopped her from unlocking her phone and dialing Booth's familiar number on the glass screen. When I did try, she slapped my hand forcefully away. She practically jogged out of the office after she'd spoke slowly into the phone with the request for Seeley Booth to come to the Jeffersonian to speak about some paperwork that was left unfinished.

I could barely think of the idea of Angela getting all "What the Hell is wrong with you Booth?" in the middle of the Jeffersonian. I knew that if I were to finish up with my work as soon as possible, I could go back to Maluku. After all, that's what non-humane people would do, right?

While examining the set of remains delivered to me last night, I hear the sliding doors open and the tap of Booth's FBI Regulation shoes against the cold and hard concrete. Angela, who was leaning on the metal railing of the platform waiting and watching for Booth to walk through the doors leaps into action. He has no idea what he just walked into.

"Hey, Angela. Where is that paperwork?"

"There is no paperwork. Just me. Ready to kick your sorry ass." Angela spoke with a definite tone and it was really very scary. And Booth, realizing her anger, took a step back from her. Even with his large stature and incredible strength, Booth couldn't hold back the expression on his face that showed he was more than scared.

"What's going on? Why does she look like she is about to kill me then throw me into gutter?" Booth looks up to me. I pretend not to hear him, thinking at since we are so far away maybe he will just believe I couldn't hear him. He grunts and his hands become fists.

"I don't really have time for this crap Angela! If you don't have any work for me I am going to leave. Are we clear?"

"No we are not clear Mr. Know It All! Where the hell did the old Booth go?"

"Angela, I am not going to do this. I do not need to hear you talk about Bones and me. Anyways, Hannah is meeting me here in ten so in the meantime, why don't you leave me alone."

"You are just, God you are unbelievable!" Despite my growing anger against Booth, I feel bad for him because I see Angela similarly make her hand a fist. Then she says preparing to strike him, "You Son of a..."

Before Angela could do anything, Cam stepped in between them. I quickly ripped off my latex gloves and ran down the steps to lead Angela away from Booth. As I grab her, Booth says, "Oh so now you try to stop her! I have enough problems right now! I don't need you sending Angela to fight your own battles while you watch in the background."

**AN: Did you like it? Review please? This will be one of the only times you should press the button. Thanks :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'm sorry I haven't been able to post lately, but I had a camp and then my dog had to get emergency surgery while my family and I were on vacation where there was **_**no service whatsoever.**_**Ugh. But that is no excuse so I am going to post tomorrow. I have an idea of what I'm going to do for chapter 5. I explain it below ↓↓↓↓↓. Hope you enjoy this :)**

_You can't even fight your own battles?_

Shock is an interesting process. There is the type of shock you get when you are dying, struggling for breath, losing too much blood. Shock is usually the step right before death. You slip into shock, you die. Your body can't take the loss of blood flow. Of course there is the type of shock that occurs when physically you are fine, but you are so surprised you are overwhelmed. In this situation though, I felt closer to a step from death than just being overwhelmed.

This is the same way I felt when we were arguing on his birthday, when we just stood staring at each other. Even Angela backed off from her previously threatening position. Cam stood holding of Booth and I by placing her arms in between us as she flicked her eyes in between our staring battle. The lab, usually buzzing with life and interns from different departments speed walking from room, was completely frozen due to our argument. Calling it a loud argument would definitely be an understatement.

Softly now, he says, "I don't know what to say anymore Bones." I look at his angry features while thinking that I don't want anything from him anymore. I guess that works out then. We don't know what we want from each other. I don't know if he even wants anything from me _at all_.

Cam intervenes by moving her back to me and pushing Booth's shoulders away, causing us to stop staring.

"Stay here, you two," Cam tells Angela and I.

Angela hesitantly taps my shoulders while Cam leads Booth a little further away from me. I watch as Cam talks to him, realizing that I can hear her whisper to Booth. As a cover I turn around and look at the ground while Angela hugs me.

_"Seeley, what is going on with you? What happened back there to make you so... so angry? Because the last time you were talking to me about how much loved her."_

I can barely hear his response, only making out a few words. _"Things...Hannah...I don't know who...am. Something...not...same. I...she's a cold fish."_

_"Seeley!" Cam shouts. "How can say that? Do you remember that post-operative drink that we had right after your surgery? You asked me if I thought you were different. And I told you that you still were the man with the lion heart. Well right now Seeley, I don't know if you are."_

"_...not the same. I'm aware," _he says. Angela lets me go and I look over my shoulder

"_Go talk to her. Before you lose her."_

"_Camille…"_

"_Go. Now." _ She turns him around and he starts to walk towards us.

**AN: So I decided that since this chapter is so short and because I haven't posted in a month, I will be posting a chapter TOMORROW. I am thinking of doing something pretty unconventional for the next chapter so bear with me, what do you think about it being a songfic chapter? I've never seen someone do that in a multi-chapter fic and only use the song for 1 chapter. If you like that idea please tell me in the reviews. Or if you don't. I will only make that kind of chapter if you guys like the idea. The song I'm planning on using is Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran. Please review and tell me what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

****AN: I'm an hour late. I'M SORRY. PLEASE READ IT THOUGH.****

****Disclaimer: Does anyone really think that I own Bones? Cause I don't. I wish I did. But I don't.****

As he walks towards me, I begin to panic. He reaches me and stops. When he doesn't speak to me at all, I just turn and speed walk to my office as quickly as possible.

"Go!" Cam shouts.

"Just… give me a second," he say to her. He is jogging close behind me when I turn around, making him stop and almost run into me.

"Bones, I have something to say. Can you do me a favor and hear me out? I know it is a lot to ask for but…"

"Fine. I am listening."

"I want to tell that I am sorry for what I said about you. I am sorry for everything that has happened." What is wrong with him? One second he is yelling at me, the next is apologizing. I wish he would just choose an emotion to feel and not change his feelings every other time we encounter each other."

"Booth, have you ever heard of Schrodinger's Cat?" I ask him.

"Who's cat? Why are we talking about cats?"

"No. No, was an experiment conducted by a man named Schrodinger. He devised an experiment where he placed a cat in box along with a container of poison that could be open at given time. He closed the box with the cat and the poison. Now at this point in time, he could consider the cat both alive, and dead. Do you follow my logic?"

"No. That just seemed like story time to me. I get the sciency stuff but I don't get how it relates."

"Okay. Well I believe that our sabbatical was just our own version Schrodinger's experiment. In this case, the cat is our partnership and the 'dead or alive' is a metaphor for whether or not we still can work together."

"And?" He says. Wow, I think I forgot how long it takes for him to catch on.

"And I'm waiting to see if our cat is dead or not."

"Are you saying that you might want to end our partnership? Bones, what I said could not of possibly been that horrible, could it have been?"

"Booth! We haven't been back for more than a week and you've spent it bragging about your girlfriend, saying that I've got a "missing link to humanity" and telling me that I am too weak to fight my own battles. I don't want this to be our partnership. Me listening to your insults? I'd rather go back to Maluku. You can go back to Hannah Burley, things will change. You told me before we left that you wanted thing to change. So either we go back to our opposite sides of the world, or we are just partners and that is it. We will have no emotional connection to each other. Just partners."

"Are those my only choices?"

"Yes. Those are your options."

"I," he pauses, "I choose to stay. I want to stay. But we can't be friends?"

Starting to walk to my office again, I sit down in my desk chair and say "Colleagues, Booth. Maybe there will be a point in time where we can begin to become friends again."

"Oh. Okay. Okay, I guess. Do you still want to go in the field with me? Can we still go in the field together?"

"Do you actually expect me to allow the FBI techs to even touch the body before me, Booth? Of course we will still go into the field together." Slowly, a smile starts to spread across his face and he lightly chuckles.

His face then becomes serious and his eyes become sad looking as he begins to apologize again. "I am really sorry Bones. I'm a jerk. I know you more than enough to know that you don't have anything wrong with you. Bones?" he says.

"Yes, Booth?"

"You are still the standard."

****AN: There are two way that this story could go. Either I could stop here and have it just end with Bones and Booth not together. But who wants that? I'm going to keep going. PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. It's really easy! Button below!****


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I realize that most of you probably expected this story to be abandoned. And I realize that it has been more than two months. Sorry. Life got in the way. **

Two months had passed since Booth told me I was still his standard. He started to talk to me about personal thing less. At one point, he'd gotten frustrated because of our lack of intimacy. He shouted in the car at me, but I had sensed his agitation earlier, realizing that I had really been the initial cause of his anger. Nevertheless, he'd slapped the steering wheel and cursed about how we'd been friends for years and I shouldn't have just thrown it away.

The other day, a new case came up about a talented BMX bike rider. We'd found him on the roof. Booth, who was suffering from alcohol poisoning. I was worried about him because it was not normal for him to be so reckless. So the night after we discovered the body, I ventured to his office to see if he was alright. Tentatively, I knocked on the door of Booth's office. His shoulders were hunched over his desk and his hand was buried deep in his thick brown hair. Hacker was staring him. The way Hacker stood was odd, like he was relaxed and tense all at the same time. I stood just outside his doorway waiting for their conversation to be over.

"Look Booth. I dont know whats up with you right, but whatever it is, you need to knock it off. It is unacceptable for you to be showing up at work mid-hangover. I know you've got some personal things going on, so I'm going to let you off this time but, you are being reckless. And making rash decisions! You have a warning. Clean up your act," Hacker's voice echoed through the nearly empty office. Hacker, while storming out of Booth's office says to me, "Maybe you can clean him up. You two are something now, right?"

"Look Booth. I dont know whats up with you right, but whatever it is, you need to knock it off. It is unacceptable for you to be showing up at work mid-hangover. I know you've got some personal things going on, so I'm going to let you off this time but, you are being reckless. And making rash decisions! You have a warning. Clean up your act," Hacker's voice echoed through the nearly empty office. Hacker, while storming out of Booth's office says to me, "Maybe you can clean him up. You two are something now, right?"

"No," I say. Wouldn't he be aware of us if we were a couple?

"His people my ass. Your team is nothing anymore. You're the same as any other team. And, you have a stunted success rate too," he says, walking away. I can't believe I'd ever had a relationship with him.

Booth, belligerently stomping out of his office, gets face to face with Hacker. His face was a deep rouge, showing his anger.

"Don't you dare say that! You have no right!"

"Take a breath, Booth," Hacker says, "Stay sober."

Then, Hacker walks away, like Booth hadn't just screamed at him. Booth walks back into his office, closing the door and closing the blinds. I enter anyways, despite the fact that he he obviously would prefer solitude. l'd prefer if this was private anyways. He still sits unmoving in the new chair he got shortly after we got back.

"What's wrong Booth? "

"Nothing."

"Sure. Nothing. What's wrong? And tell me the truth?"

"Fine. I'll tell you. remember the day that we got the case with the guy that looked liked orange popsicle?"

"Yes. The one where you showed up with alcohol poisoning. What about it?"

"The day before, Sweets told me that he didn't want to end up like me." Pain is evident on his face, his eyes drooped and wet, bags showing under his eyes.

Confused, I ask him, "What does that even mean? Why wouldnt he want to end up like you? You're an incredible man that has accomplished very much. You have completed many honorable years of service to this government. Any man who does not wish that for themselves is foolish."

"Thanks Bones," he says with a slight smile. I smile back, glad that he is finally smiling. I haven't seen his smile for quite sometime. I believe the last time was when he was telling me about Parker coming over for a few days. Nevertheless, I am glad to see it.

"So why doesn't he want to be like you?"

"Because I'm not married, my life is sad. So, in my drunken state, I said I was proposing to Hannah in a couple days."

Oh God. Of course, I use that term merely because it is a term to show how surprised I am. And if I am one thing, it is surprised. This was a mistake. Booth has nothing wrong with him! Booth is fine! He is going to be with Hannah, and he'll finally be with someone for thirty or forty or fifty years. He just was out celebrating. That is why he was drunk. Anthropologically speaking, a common way for men show their superiority is by getting as drunk as possible. Because she is going to say yes. She loves him. And he loves her. Booth is marrying Hannah. Hannah. I am happy for him. I am. I am happy for them. Happy. They'll be happy. I am happy for them. But me, myself? I'm not happy. It's okay. I'll be okay. I just have to go. I need to go. I need to go now. I've been waiting for something good to happen, but it isn't going to. But I guess it has, in a way. He found his happy ending.

**AN: Please read and review! Every review helps, and tell me what you think about this latest chapter. THANKS FOR THE REVIEWERS WHO YELLED AT ME TO KEEP WRITING! You, as the readers, are the most important part to this story. You control where it goes, and how it ends.**


	7. Chapter 7

TO MY READERS-

I have not updated in more than a year, and I have an opportunity to update one of my stories. However, I don't know which one you all would prefer. So, I will let you choose. I will either update and _finish_ Eavesdropping or The Christmas Spent In Limbo. It's up to you. Leave your choice in the reviews.

Happy Holidays, everybody.


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